The 15 best cheap eats according to our readers

The average American spends close to $150 on food every week, which means roughly 11 percent of most households' income goes towards meals and snacking. Because of this, the Deseret News compiled the 25 highest rated “cheap eats” in the greater Salt Lake area according to UrbanSpoon.com, hoping to make it a little easier for our readers to cut back on monthly food expenses.
The previous list, which was decided entirely by the customer ratings as reported by UrbanSpoon, included everything from well established Utah standards like Café Rio, to more obscure options like the Cotton Bottom Inn. Even with the diverse tastes, it wasn’t quite enough to satisfy everyone.
We received substantial feedback from our readers, primarily suggestions of restaurants that were not included in our list. In response, we asked our readers to give their suggestions of the best affordable restaurants in the Greater Salt Lake area.
While many of the suggestions overlapped with our original list — for example, Burger Bar, Café Rio and Sills Café were very popular among our readers — the new responses have made for a very different list.
The interpretation of what is “cheap” and what is “good” was left up to our readers. For example, while most of the restaurants submitted were in the “under $10” price range, there were some in the “$11 to $30” range.
Another interesting difference from the previous list is the dominant food type. While both lists include numerous burger joints, the reader’s choice compilation leans more favorably towards restaurants that specialize in American food, overwhelming the UrbanSpoon list’s preference for Mexican cuisine.